Receptacles of the type are known and are used for a wide variety of purposes and in many applications. By and large, these applications are limited as to daily use and/or in technological applications of the receptacle. Specifically, the state of the art receptacles of this type have not been found to be applicable for all purposes and all fields because of certain inherent drawbacks in prior art designs.
For reasons which are not fully understood and may be a result of latent prejudice against the use of such receptacles for pharmaceutical substances like dialysis concentrates, such receptacles have not been widely employed for the transport, preservation and preparation of dialysis concentrates for dialysis machines as well as in respect of disposal of the dialysis concentrate receptacles after use.
For the transport and preservation of dialysis concentrates, even today and in most cases, rigid large-volume canisters are provided for the dialysis concentrate which is accessible through a screwcap mouth. When the canister is placed in use, the screwcap must be removed and the extraction lance of the dialysis machine must be inserted in the canister and immersed in the dialysis concentrate through the mouth which is opened by the removal of the screwcap. This manipulation technique is associated with a number of problems.
Firstly, the disposal of the relatively large rigid canisters is a problem. In medical practice and where a multiplicity of dialysis stations are in operation in parallel, it is not uncommon for the empty dialysis canisters to be stored before ultimate disposal and ultimately disposed of because the problem of sterilization limits the possibility of reuse of the canisters. Since the volume occupied by the canisters is substantial, this requires considerable spacing for holding the used canisters until disposal and actually makes the disposal problem severe. Space is generally not readily available in medical facilities.
The canisters, in addition, must be opened before filling and use to allow, in the latter case, the extraction lance to be inserted. Since the interior of the canister is fully accessible upon such opening, there is a significant danger than contaminants will be entrained to the dialysis concentrate and hence of secondary contamination.
With respect to the problem of disposal, it has been recognized that the large volume of canisters creates significant disposal problems and hence it has been suggested to provide foil bags which are collapsible and are made up of one or more foil layers. In the past, these foil bags have been found to be suitable only for relatively low volumes because the weld seams weren't able to sustain stresses resulting from sudden shocks, like a fall of the filled bag. As a consequence, there was always a danger of leakage.
Furthermore, because of the shape instability of the highly flexible foil bags they could not readily be placed upon a dialysis machine and, as a result, it was necessary to provide special suspending means on the bag and complementary suspending means on the dialysis machine or on a separate infusion stand. In the latter case the radius of movement of the dialysis machine on its casters was greatly limited.